Home(school) improvement: End of week 4, start of 5

I am just not that on top of things lately. Maybe this week will be a little better. Even though I didn't post a follow-up for week 4 on Friday, I do have photos to prove that I'm working on it!


We left our sandbox open and it rained, and I thought that would be fun (and messy!) to play in. It didn't disappoint. The girls made their own little beach and danced on it. Wet sand does feel nice. This occupied them for about an hour and then it was bath time!


On Saturday we took a church trip up to a camp in the mountains and had a lot of fun. Jordan took Suzi (and a couple of other kids) out in a canoe...


And we ran in circles and generally got dirty and had a good time.


I've been irritable lately and backsliding into yelling. Ugh. I hate it and I am still working on it.

So, this week?

Establish a daily rhythm. Eat together at the table, get up early to fix breakfast, offer alternating opportunities for expansion/contraction. Improve environment so materials are more accessible.

1) Getting up early is going to be tough with Robert. It's like even if I do get up early I might not be able to get much done. Right now I usually sleep as long as I can and Jordan takes the baby after I've been nursing him on and off all night. Maybe this week I'll try to get to bed a little earlier and see if I can be up by 6:30 to make breakfast and get prepared for the day. Maybe if I work on establishing a daily rhythm for myself, it'll be easier to do it for my kids.

2) The dining room table could use a good cleaning.

3) I need to straighten up our toys, as I think some of them are mixed up and out of place. There are some expansion/contraction opportunities there that might be going to waste.

4) One thing holding me back is the difficulty of finding a good balance of having materials readily available to the kids, but also holding back enough so they don't turn the house into a disaster area and waste things. I could put a ream of paper on their table and 20 minutes later each page would be scribbled on and tossed in the floor. Any ideas on how to handle this?

5) I definitely need to add several clean-ups into our daily schedule, and learn how to keep my cool when the kids decide they don't want to help me. I know for a fact that yelling and guilt will not help!

6) Sigh. I guess I should write out a schedule. Actually, I already have one somewhere (that we haven't used) so I'll probably start with that. Maybe I'll post it in a day or two. Writing a schedule is fun, but sticking to one is hard!

We'll see how it goes...